Meet the New Ginger - Just Like The Old One But More Smug.

[Gingersnap]

In another thread I mentioned that I formally gave my notice to retire today.

Mr. Snaps and I have been working toward early retirement for a really loooooong time and now it's paying off!

We will both end our current careers on April 30th.

Will this be the end of income-generating work? Unlikely. But it's the end of working for other people.

I'm drinking tonight so ask me anything.

[phillygirl]

Congrats!!! That's awesome!!

Can I borrow some money?

[Gingersnap]

Congrats!!! That's awesome!!

Can I borrow some money?

No. We lent money 3 times to relatives/friends and regretted it every time. I like you too much to hate you.

[Michele]

Congratulations! Maybe it's time for you to come visit your country cousins. We go to church in a hippy town where you could score some baby llama yarn among other things.

[phillygirl]

No. We lent money 3 times to relatives/friends and regretted it every time. I like you too much to hate you.

Gramps said something a few years back that I've always remembered...whenever you loan money to a friend or family, don't expect to get paid back. Then you won't be disappointed and feelings won't get hurt. By and large, I've followed that and the money I've lent out I've literally forgotten how much. I know I lent it, but i don't recall how much, so if it's paid it's paid, if not...it's literally forgotten.

[phillygirl]

So...you two planning a vacation?

[Gingersnap]

So...you two planning a vacation?

No (except to visit Michelle now). We got where are by not going on vacation.

For the first time ever I will be able to begin to realize my ambition to be on the Garden Tour. Sure, people gawk now but I know that it's simply because the field is weak. I figure it will take 4 years to seriously begin to compete.

Aside from really getting my yard into a turn of the previous century American cottage garden, we will be ripping out all carpet and doing all non-tile floors in Birch. This means getting rid of the current couch/love seat thing and selling the mission-style entertainment center. Basically reimagining our entire foyer, great room (it's not that great), etc. Since I have zero decor ability, this makes me nervous.

I will also move to a more bike-centered life, get more into local fiber culture, and buy more guns.

[Gingersnap]

I now have "short-timers disease". Beyond that, I have been looking at home improvement/decorating sites.

Apparently, everything Mr. Snaps and I have done/liked in terms of home improvement is both wrong and seriously low class. I had no idea.

It's wrong not to update your toilet. It's wrong to pick colors that are not on Pantone's list. It's wrong to have "dated" light fixtures. Apparently it's wrong to actually live in your own home for more than a couple of hours a day. Who knew?

I can set up a wet chemistry lab in a herd of buffalo but I can't pick a paint color.

[Adam]

I now have "short-timers disease". Beyond that, I have been looking at home improvement/decorating sites.

Apparently, everything Mr. Snaps and I have done/liked in terms of home improvement is both wrong and seriously low class. I had no idea.

It's wrong not to update your toilet. It's wrong to pick colors that are not on Pantone's list. It's wrong to have "dated" light fixtures. Apparently it's wrong to actually live in your own home for more than a couple of hours a day. Who knew?

I can set up a wet chemistry lab in a herd of buffalo but I can't pick a paint color.

Oh bullshit. Unless you're planning on trying to sell in the next year or so, then tell all of those decorator sites to stick it where the sun don't shine. If y'all are planning to stay there for another ten years or more, then just do what the hell you want and enjoy it. It's your home, not someone else's. Get an avocado toilet if that makes you happy. Put in cork countertops if that's what you want. Anyone buying a house in the modern era who doesn't plan on renovating it to their own standard either likes what you did or just plain doesn't care. Unless your house is in Architectural Digest or something, just resign yourself to the fact that whoever lives there after you will probably rip out much of what you have done, usually because they absolutely hate what you have done.

There's no accounting for taste, as they say.



About ten years ago, after Mom died, Dad sold our (the four brothers') childhood home. What had been built as a pretty modest $25,000 two-story ranch in 1961 in what was then an almost farming-area rural part of town (we had a 100-acre horse farm adjoining our little 1-acre property) had been carefully crafted into something that wasn't quite Architectural Digest, but it was a very nice house, by the late 1990s. My brothers and I had personally put a good deal of "sweat equity" into expanding and improving the place, with the coup de grâce being a kitchen that really was worthy of Architectural Digest, or at least some of the better gourmet magazines. The place was really just fantastic, and much of it had been guided by some of the finest architects and interior designers in the Southeast.

I was in the neighborhood on business a few years ago and decided to drop by the ol' homestead and see how the place was getting on. After I explained who I was and that this had been my childhood home, the very nice lady who took me on the nickel tour explained to me how she had finally gotten rid of that awful kitchen, and she had ripped out that ridiculous lower deck that I personally built, to the tune of about $20,000 worth of lumber and whatnot, scene of dinner parties of some of Nashville's biggest movers and shakers, and instead replaced it with pea gravel. She was convinced that this was a tremendous improvement. Little did she know that I spent days extracting every single pebble of pea gravel out of that spot twelve years earlier, working and sweating for hours and hours each night after my regular job and for sixteen hours a day on the weekends.

I'm pretty sure I didn't wince too visibly when I listened to her tell me what a shambles the place was when she got there and "corrected" everything....

[Gingersnap]

Oh bullshit. Unless you're planning on trying to sell in the next year or so, then tell all of those decorator sites to stick it where the sun don't shine. If y'all are planning to stay there for another ten years or more, then just do what the hell you want and enjoy it. It's your home, not someone else's. Get an avocado toilet if that makes you happy. Put in cork countertops if that's what you want. Anyone buying a house in the modern era who doesn't plan on renovating it to their own standard either likes what you did or just plain doesn't care. Unless your house is in Architectural Digest or something, just resign yourself to the fact that whoever lives there after you will probably rip out much of what you have done, usually because they absolutely hate what you have done.

There's no accounting for taste, as they say.



About ten years ago, after Mom died, Dad sold our (the four brothers') childhood home. What had been built as a pretty modest $25,000 two-story ranch in 1961 in what was then an almost farming-area rural part of town (we had a 100-acre horse farm adjoining our little 1-acre property) had been carefully crafted into something that wasn't quite Architectural Digest, but it was a very nice house, by the late 1990s. My brothers and I had personally put a good deal of "sweat equity" into expanding and improving the place, with the coup de grâce being a kitchen that really was worthy of Architectural Digest, or at least some of the better gourmet magazines. The place was really just fantastic, and much of it had been guided by some of the finest architects and interior designers in the Southeast.

I was in the neighborhood on business a few years ago and decided to drop by the ol' homestead and see how the place was getting on. After I explained who I was and that this had been my childhood home, the very nice lady who took me on the nickel tour explained to me how she had finally gotten rid of that awful kitchen, and she had ripped out that ridiculous lower deck that I personally built, to the tune of about $20,000 worth of lumber and whatnot, scene of dinner parties of some of Nashville's biggest movers and shakers, and instead replaced it with pea gravel. She was convinced that this was a tremendous improvement. Little did she know that I spent days extracting every single pebble of pea gravel out of that spot twelve years earlier, working and sweating for hours and hours each night after my regular job and for sixteen hours a day on the weekends.

I'm pretty sure I didn't wince too visibly when I listened to her tell me what a shambles the place was when she got there and "corrected" everything....

LMAO! I worked like a dog on our last garden. It was seriously amazing. This is not just my opinion, people went crazy over it and did pix online, etc.

The people who bought our old house did some stuff of their own. They tore out our deck with hand carvings, they pulled up every single plant and had landscapers put in xeriscape and rocks despite the former stuff being so "water-wise" that I did a class on it, and they took out an 8 ft. picture window.

My boss who is a fair gardening guy himself told me, "Never go back and look. Never.". He was so right.

[Gingersnap]

It's getting weird now.

I've been doing the "farewell" lunches and turning over all my stuff to others. People are like, "Can you do X before you leave? We really need X to happen.". Well, you could have brought that up 6 weeks ago.

I'm beginning to realize that this will the first summer since I was 14 that I didn't do paycheck work. Wow. I mean "WOW".

All through school I knew kids who didn't work summers. Not a lot but some. Even when I was not in a full-time job after school (college, grad), I still had a couple of jobs in the summer.

I will not have a job this summer.

I mean that I don't have to deliver pizza, hike cars, wait tables, baby-sit, cook, do landscaping, do an "internship", tutor, or do anything.

I have never had more than a work week at time off unless I moved. I took more time then, obviously, but it was still work.

Eek.

Part of me wants to go full tilt on the house and the garden. Part of me wants to explore day-drinking and Netflix.

[Adam]

I have never had more than a work week at time off unless I moved. I took more time then, obviously, but it was still work.

Eek.

Part of me wants to go full tilt on the house and the garden. Part of me wants to explore day-drinking and Netflix.

Thanks to technology, you can do both!




Just my personal observation: take two weeks off and do something "crazy:" go to Cabo and run around naked on the beach for three days or whatever. Then go home (or where ever) and do what you view yourself doing "enjoying your retirement" at this very moment: garden, knit, torment the kittens with long needles, whatever. Do that for six weeks. And then start looking for your post-retirement career (or start working at it; depends upon your particular situation). Point being: take some time, but doing take a lot of time, and you'll be a lot happier.

and all of that.

[phillygirl]

Definitely take a vacation. It doesn't have to be a break the bank vacation. Take a week or two to drive. Go out to the West Coast, or go down to Santa Fe. I envy you your time. 9 years. I've got 9 more years then I'm summers off as well.

[Gingersnap]

Thanks to technology, you can do both!




Just my personal observation: take two weeks off and do something "crazy:" go to Cabo and run around naked on the beach for three days or whatever. Then go home (or where ever) and do what you view yourself doing "enjoying your retirement" at this very moment: garden, knit, torment the kittens with long needles, whatever. Do that for six weeks. And then start looking for your post-retirement career (or start working at it; depends upon your particular situation). Point being: take some time, but doing take a lot of time, and you'll be a lot happier.

and all of that.

We aren't really "crazy people" (although we know a lot), We have dogs and a cat so just flipping off somewhere is not an option. Mr. Snaps has a medical condition that precludes travel without known facilities.

I guess we could go naked at home - nobody would see once the trees leafed out.

[Gingersnap]

As of now, all days are ended days. There will be no "next Thursday" after tomorrow. No next "worky" weekend after this weekend.

It's hyper-weird.

People are confused and alarmed that we will not be jumping into "giving back" or getting more degrees or consulting or traveling. People are telling us that getting "more experiences" is where our priorities should be.

Both Mr. Snaps and I are introverts. We have deep, rich, astounding interior lives (when we aren't posting). Collecting experiences is an extroverty thing to do. Seeing objects and places doesn't really do much for solving problems or imposing general frameworks on classes. It's fun but not as much fun as thinking or discussing certain ideas. It's kind of intrusive.

We're being told very clearly what we should and should not do. It's kind of crazy. We "look" all eco-conscious and socially responsible. We "look" like frugal, minimalist "experience" people. We "look" like a lot things but we aren't

We're feral.